When land prices fell during the Great Depression Schowalter was able to buy vast tracts of western Kansas and Oklahoma farmland from farmers eager to sell.
Schowalter had earlier observed summer fallowing in eastern Oregon and applied it to his advantage, perhaps the first to introduce this practice to Kansas.
From 1935 to 1950 good crop yields, high commodity prices and increasing land values all helped to build the Schowalter estate.
A significant portion of this laid over the Hugoton natural gas field and some of his 400 acres (1.6 km2) in Oklahoma produced oil income.
In 1952 Schowalter was a key donor involved in purchasing over 30,000 acres (120 km²) of land in Paraguay to aid resettlement of European Mennonite refugees displaced by World War II.